National Curd Nerd Day 2020

 October 15, 2020 was National Curd Nerd Day, and we celebrate that day at work since the company I work for makes the cheese curds for Culver's restaurants.  

This year has been unlike any other, with Covid pretty much running the show worldwide, and like most places of business here in Wisconsin, we are required to wear masks while at work.  In light of this, I was asked to make some masks for Curdis and Goldie, the Curd Nerd Mascots.  Don't they look adorable in their masks?

I also made myself a custom mask to wear to work on Curd Nerd Day.  I purposely created it to match the t-shirts that us employees were given and asked to wear to work.  So fun!

 

 

Pinky - A Baby Quilt

 

“Pinky” a baby quilt finished and gifted to a coworker/friend and her husband at their baby shower in October 2020, for baby-to-be. 

I love this quilt so much! It’s made from a pattern designed by Creative Bee Studios, which I purchased in her Etsy shop. It features a technique I’ve never used before, “Use Both Sides”... in other words, use some of the fabric’s backsides rather than the front. It mutes the colors and gives a creative effective that I just love. Four of the fabrics in this quilt were sewn in backwards, and it turned out perfect.Can you figure out which ones they are?

I'm sorry for so many photos, but it was a gorgeous fall day out and I couldn't decide which photos I liked best, so decided to use them all!
 

A huge heartfelt thank you to my friend Dorie for her long arm quilting, and for putting the binding on for me as well since I have been so far behind on sewing projects this year due to mask making. This quilt turned out beautiful!

 

Added Note 6/18/2021:
I'm linking my Pinky - A Baby Quilt post up to blog post "Show Me Something Outdoors" over at Sarah Goer Quilts.  Give her blog a look and follow for great inspiration!

More Masks

With the COVID19 pandemic still going on, I’ve been so busy making masks lately that my other sewing projects are suffering. But it’s okay...masks are important to those who need and want them, so it’s been a priority for the time being. However, it takes me a little longer to make each mask since I like to take my time and make sure each one is perfect before it gets sent off to its recipient. I want people to feel confident in knowing they are worth the extra time and effort when wearing a mask that I’ve made for them. Plus, anything I make, regardless what it is, is a reflection of me and my craftsmanship.  So I want that reflection to show the pride I have in my work, and the fact that I care about quality craftsmanship.

Anyways, the following are photos of more masks I've made, and a few of the happy recipients.  (Including myself in a couple of photos, haha)!  Descriptions will be in captions under some of the photos.

“Mod Ovals on White”
Fabric is available to purchase in my Spoonflower shop: Gina's Custom Creations

Bottom 3 masks in above pic are from my Spoonflower fabric designs,
which are available in my shop: Gina's Custom Creations

 Here are two photos are of me wearing a mask I made for myself using my Spoonflower fabric design: "COVID19 - The Battle Is On - V.2" printed on Basic Craft Cotton.  The fabric used in this mask is available for purchase in my Spoonflower Shop: Gina's Custom Creations

 And also some photos of happy mask recipients. 
(Just a note that the purple mask is not made lopsided.  It's the way he was wearing it, lol).

 

 

                      R.I.P. Rich: Nov. 15, 1968 - August 27, 2020

My mom loves her mask!

 And here are a few more masks...

Used low volume fabric for mask, and appliquéd a fussy cut rose emblem to the top center.

For the music lover...

A special request for a skull mask.
Made from: Regent Skull by Henry Alexander - OOP
I just happened to have a teeny bit of this fabric left in my stash from quite a few years ago!

Made and surprise gifted this one to a really awesome friend of mine.
He's a die-hard Kiss fan.
(You can see him wearing it farther up in one of the photos in this post).

*Before making this mask, though, I did some research to make sure I'm not
infringing on any copyright laws, since I didn't make it to sell.

"The Yearning" - A Modern Mini Quilt

I just finished my Modern Mini Quilt for the #ModernMiniQuiltChallenge at 11:30pm last night, and got some photos of it this morning. WHEW! Talk about cutting things close since the deadline is today at 5pm Central Time!

The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show

My entry is called, "The Yearning"

It features an image of my son, surrounded by dark, modern fabrics with a pop of golden sunshine seeping through. The dark colors represent depression and sadness in missing my son throughout the stay at home orders of Covid19. As well as the loss of one of my beloved cats, Jasper, who passed away one week ago today, after being a part of my family for 14 years. The improv-piecing represents the chaos and upheaval in life these days. The zipper pull represents the unzipping of the dark and dreary, to let the sun finally shine in and bring forth happiness and contentment to my soul. So in short, The Yearning stands for my desire to have things go back to normal... to be released from the depression and anxiety... to once again be happy.

I mainly improv-pieced this mini quilt, which measures 12.5 inches wide x 13.5 inches high, using a mixture of scrap fabrics leftover from previous projects. Some of the fabrics used are from Northcott's Stonehenge collection. The sun and burst of golden pieces that are appliqued on top of my quilt, are fussy cut from two of my own personal surface designs on Spoonflower, called "Blazing Sun" and "Hypnotic Sunflowers, Large Scale". 

I machine quilted this, which is not my forte! I usually pay someone else to machine quilt my projects... so I am quite proud of myself for being able to pull this off!

Watching The Voice on Hulu while sewing.

Fun with Face Masks

Life sure has been crazy the past couple of months of 2020.  Every day I wonder if life will ever have a chance at going back to normal... or at least what each of us consider to be normal in our every day lives.

In light of all the COVID-19 things going on...business shut downs, stay at home orders, etc., many places are now requiring people to wear face masks.  So I've been making masks for family, friends, coworkers... pretty much anyone who asks me to do so, or mentions they are in need of one or more.  My go-to mask pattern is the free Florence Face Mask (formerly named the Fu Face Mask).  I get so many requests for this because of how comfortable it feels, and how it has excellent facial coverage, including wrapping around the chin.  I'm also finding that more people prefer the ties over elastic, as the masks with elastic are hurting the backs of the ears, and rubbing the skin raw.  So I will say that I highly recommend this pattern for face masks!

With many of the masks, I'm using my own surface designs, printed on Spoonflower fabric from my Spoonflower Shop: Gina's Custom Creations.
Here are some photos of a few masks I've made using the Florence pattern:

Florence Masks:
Made with fabric remnants from my stash

Florence Masks:
Made using swatches from my
own personal fabric designs.

Florence Masks

Fabric Purchased on Spoonflower:  Pictured from Left to Right...
"Notions in Pen - Zipper Tassels" ~ Designed By: emilysanford
"Mod Ovals on White"; "COVID19 - The Battle is On"; "COVID19 - The Battle is On - V.5"; and
"COVID19 - The Battle is On - V.2" ...Designed by me.

Besides the above masks, I've also been making some customized masks here and there as requested by some of my friends and coworkers, or just to surprise someone with a fun mask as a gift after overhearing them say they wish they had this or that, LOL. 
I sometimes have to find and use *free clip-art that resembles the image a person wants, which I use as inspiration to create a similar design for use with applique.  (Some times I will purchase the right to use a clip-art image, depending on the situation).  And sometimes I design my own personal image to use on a project, if I'm able to.
*DISCLAIMER:  Any time I make projects that use clip-art images created by someone else, (such as the plethora of free clip-art one can find online at various websites), I DO NOT SELL any of those items.  I respect copyright laws, and only use them on items I gift or donate.  (If I purchase the permissions to use a clip-art image on items that I sell, then that's a whole different story).

So then here are some of the fun masks I've made and gifted in the last couple of weeks...

Canadian Flag Mask
Made for a Coworker whose from Canada.
I had overheard him in the hall outside my office, mentioning to someone
that he wanted a Canadian Flag mask.  I went home and made him this.

Turning pieces of a Harley Davidson bandanna into a mask.
A very good friend mailed me a stack of bandannas.
Two of the bandannas were Harley Davidson themed.
He asked me to make him a couple masks from them.

I just love how this one turned out!

Harley Davidson themed masks.
Made from HD bandannas.

Side view of Harley masks to show the difference
between the two different patterns I used.

I had a request for a coconut bikini top themed mask.
This is what I came up with, LOL!

Close-up to show the
coconut cocktail applique.

Buck Tooth Smile Mask, LOL!

My brother's FB post,
after receiving the
Buck Tooth Smile mask
I mailed to him, LOL!

A coworker asked if I could make her a mask depicting a
flamingo with a mustache.  LOL!

The basis for this mustache-wearing flamingo was a clip-art image I found online.
However, I added a few extra elements to it to make it more fun, to reflect the person who will be wearing it.
Note: I honestly do not know who created the original clip-art image in order to credit that person!